{"id":863502,"date":"2026-08-21T19:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863502\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T19:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:06:19","slug":"giant-cuttlefish-numbers-declined-by-almost-100pc-this-year-pirsa-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863502\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant cuttlefish numbers declined by almost 100pc this year, PIRSA says"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) says giant cuttlefish numbers are down by 97 per cent.<\/p>\n

Last year the department counted 63,000 cuttlefish in the Spencer Gulf waters. This year 1,811 were recorded.<\/p>\n

South Australian Research and Development Institute executive director Professor Mike Steer said the decline was being monitored closely.<\/p>\n

“The [giant cuttlefish] population has depleted and has likely been impacted by the algal bloom,” he said.<\/p>\n

The number is the lowest since 2013, when Pirsa recorded 13,000.<\/p>\n

Marine biologists visited the Spencer Gulf last month to count the eggs left behind.<\/p>\n

“Along that 8 kilometres of coastline we only found 440 eggs,” Manny Katz said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Clusters of giant cuttlefish eggs seen in the waters of the Spencer Gulf in 2025. (Supplied: Eyre Lab)<\/p>\n

The annual gathering near Whyalla is one of the only known mass-breeding aggregations of its kind.<\/p>\n

“It’s the only place where our giant cuttlefish come for breeding,” SA Climate, Environment and Water Minister Emily Bourke said.<\/p>\n

“So we see this population as a priority to protect.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Emily Bourke says the government is aware of the significance of the species. (Supplied: Emily Bourke)<\/p>\n

The future of the giant cuttlefish<\/p>\n

Adult giant cuttlefish die shortly after spawning, leaving the next generation reliant on that single winter event.<\/p>\n

“Normally when there’s tens of thousands of cuttlefish and each female is laying dozens of eggs, you would expect there to be millions along the coastline,” Mr Katz said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Whyalla Dive Shop owner and Eyre Lab director Manny Katz. (Supplied: Manny Katz)<\/p>\n

“My team went out and jammed our heads under every single rock we could at eight sites. At some we found no eggs at all.<\/p>\n

“It’s incredibly worrying. It’s probably an indicator that next year’s population is going to be incredibly low as well.”<\/p>\n

Professor Steer said the one-two year life cycle of the species gave cause for hope.<\/p>\n

“In 2013 when numbers dropped down they popped back up in a couple of years,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Cuttlefish breed one year, die, and then the resulting hatchlings make up the population next year.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mike Steer says giant cuttlefish populations can bounce back quickly. (ABC News: Dean Faulkner)<\/p>\n

Professor Steer said the harmful algal bloom was a likely cause of the decline.<\/p>\n

“We saw those [giant cuttlefish] eggs successfully hatch last year,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Those went into the water where the bloom was present, where we’d expect to see those juveniles and sub-adults. So it’s likely that it’s had an impact.<\/p>\n

“We did see a lot of fish perish as a result of the algal bloom. We need to research into the food web structure.”<\/p>\n

Mr Katz is urging the government to protect the giant cuttlefish with a formal endangered listing.<\/p>\n

“They should be listed as an endangered species,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Cuttlefish<\/p>\n

Giant cuttlefish at Stoney Point, near Whyalla. (Supplied: Carl Charter)<\/p>\n

Invertebrates Australia has made an application for the species to be listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.<\/p>\n

“I think now there’s reason to warrant them being federally listed in Australia as an endangered species, to trigger more funding and monitoring for the future,” Mr Katz said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the federal government said in a statement that “the reduction in giant Australian cuttlefish populations in the Spencer Gulf is very concerning”.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt has asked that the Threatened Species Scientific Committee “urgently consider whether a listing for the Upper Spencer Gulf population of giant cuttlefish under the EPBC Act is appropriate, and if so, to undertake that assessment”.<\/p>\n

A joint research project between the state government and Adelaide University will track the Spencer Gulf giant cuttle fish population until 2028.<\/p>\n

Research is also being conducted on how cuttlefish numbers are calculated.<\/p>\n

That will be funded with part of the federal and state governments’ $165 million algal bloom response fund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) says giant cuttlefish numbers are down by 97 per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[32970,432608,432607,43,421218,111305,44,432609,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-863502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-giant-cuttlefish","tag-giant-cuttlefish-count-sa","tag-giant-cuttlefish-spencer-gulf","tag-headlines","tag-manny-katz","tag-mike-steer","tag-news","tag-pirsa-giant-cuttlefish","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}